Archiv für November 2010

I never actually finished up with Iceland so I guess it’s time for it now. As you might have read our last stop was Reykjavik. From there we decided we would love to head north and finish up the circle by crossing the Highlands. We felt fortunate after hearing that we had bought tickets for the last bus across the Highlands for this season. Well, it turned out to be not as great as we hoped. Most of the time we had gray sky and endless fields of dark gray rocks. Our bus was an old Toyota Van that was bumping along the gravel roads. The driver was probably in his early 60s and didn‘t speak much English except for telling us the time how long we would stop in the middle of nowhere as the schedule stated it. In the beginning we stopped once again at the famous sights of the Golden Circle near Reykjavik but after we had crossed the northern most sight of it everybody except us and the bus drivers‘ sister were left. We eventually reached Akureyri after 15 hours of rain and tons of rocks.

our private taxi across the Highlands – the bus driver and his sister somewhere in Iceland between glaciers

Luckily though the weather changed in Akureyri and in the following days we had bright sunshine and fairly high temperatures. We decided to leave Akureyri quickly to head to Myvatn (Mosquito Lake), again in a Geothermal area. From there we started our last hiking tour from Dettifoss, yet another waterfall, along the canyon northward towards Asbyrgi.

a local girl who gave us a ride told us that it was a good time of the year, the weather was perfect and the amount of mosquitoes rather fair, in summer (it was supposed to be fall already) you have black clouds of them flying all over the place

a skiing slope in Geothermal region, I really wonder if that made any sense

While you start your hike in a moon-like landscape with strangely-shaped, dark gray rocks all around you it keeps changing and getting greener with every kilometer you get closer to Asbyrgi and the coastal line. At one point you end up at a cliff and below you is – behold – one of Icelands few forests. Asbyrgi is a horseshoe-shaped cliff that protects the forest from wind which obviously is the biggest reason why there is almost no forest elsewhere. Our travel guide advised us in fact not to make fun of the forest of Iceland for reasons of politeness but we found out that the Icelandic themselves make jokes about it.

„If you ever get lost in the woods in Iceland, just stand up.“ (Icelandic saying)

Dettifoss is Europes biggest waterfall in terms of the amount of water flowing down per second (which is a number I could tell you if I still remembered it but that really goes beyond imagination)the canyon along the way to Asbyrgi just gets more and more fascinating, once again a nature highlight (as if Iceland hadn‘t „showed-off“ already)

and there we are in a forest which appears fairly odd

We hitchhiked back south on the eastern ridge of the canyon and headed further back to Seydisfjordur to catch the ferry a few days later. After four weeks in Iceland and another 3 days on the rather boring ferry we reached Germany again.

yeah well a cliché-photo and in fact we were picked up by pick-up truck at that point and had to throw the bags in the back

in Seydisfjordur we decided that it was time for another beer and were happy that there was a state-owned liquor store – „vinbudin“ – which is usually not the case for most place in Iceland…

… but we could only start laughing about the opening hours of the shop.

… finally released a new album this year titled „Heligoland“. I was listening to the album while working and got stuck at a certain song titled „Paradise Circus“. When I checked for a video to put it on here I came across several websites discussing the video itself which is described as somewhat between a „Mini-Featurette“, an art clip and a clip to jerk off. The main „actress“ of the clip is a certain „Georgina Spelvin“ who used to be a pornstar in the 70s, apparently playing in one of the most famous movies at that time „The Devil in Miss Jones“.

Of course the clip has been censored, but you can still find it here if you‘re interested.

The song is fairly beatiful and I suppose should be enjoyed without the pornography background. Listen below:

With around 120.000 inhabitants Reykjavik is by far the biggest town in Iceland thus the capital of the state. I suppose it is not the smallest capital town in the world but I‘m sure it is the smallest capital that maintains such a cosmopolitan atmosphere. Apart from the architecture which is rather „down-to-earth“ the town is truly different. I have never seen such a wild nightlife in a small town like this (just come to Bolzano and find out yourself – we are about as big as Reykjavik), the music scene is as diverse as you hear it and yet the town is very relaxing and by far not chaotic or „never-resting“ like most other capital towns (I know it’s about the size…).

We spent a few days in Reykjavik mainly relaxing and regaining energy for the next hikes. So most of the time we just walked around and looked at what we saw or simply went to the pool to soak in the hot pools.

I checked my photos and the only place on this trip where I didn‘t take a lot of photos was Reykjavik. Here are just a few of the few that I really like.

The famous Hallgrímskirkja in the city center, its architect Guðjón Samúelsson was inspired by the basalt pillars created by volcanic activities. With it’s 74,5m high bell tower the church is among the highest buildings in Iceland.